Synergy got a decisive win today at 9:00 a.m. game. Heather took the first pitch for a homer, next at bat got her a triple and her final at-bat was an ugly pop fly. They ended up winning 7-2. Only one game left and one makeup game. Heather wanted to head over to the Discovery Fields to hang out with friends and work on her tan.

It was Sponsor day and we entered the sunglass raffle. I entered for both the women and men's version so that I could give one to Heather. The carne asada tacos were yummy and we wandered from field to field talking to everyone.

The battery grip showed up but the camera body is AWOL. It better get here next week!

Today was the last day to get my "Free" phone from Verizon and after going to the Verizon store and looking at all the options for a long time. The manager asked if I wanted a polo shirt and start working there.

I told him that I was ordering online and only came in to hold, use, and play around with the phones. He chuckled and recommended the LG chocolate line, razorv3, enV, and the treo. I nixed the chocolates because they looked girlie. But I liked the flip phone version, though. Everone has a razor so I passed on that. I liked the features in the enV, but I just know I wasn't going to use them anyway. Same thing with the treo.

So the LG VX8600 (black) gets here Tuesday or Wednesday. I wonder if I can use the now "ancient" Motorola V770 on my Sprint plan? If not, it can be my alarm clock!

That must sound like an interesting title, huh? Well, while I was running and then got lazy, I walked the last mile. A guy dressed in white pants and a white shirt coming from the opposite direction stopped about 10 feet in front of me, kneeled and said, "Jesus is with you!" He got up and walked past me. I walked a little more and turned to look and he was on his way. Just something that I'd never of thought would happen in suburbia; something downtown maybe...

When you're heading somewhere in your car, are you mainly focused on how many miles you have driven, or how many to go? They should have a estimated miles remaining.

Same thing for when you're listening to music. How much time the song played has really no meaning unless you know the exact length of the song is variable in length but time remaining is a pretty clear indicator of when the song will be finished.

I'm listening to: "Give it to me" - Timbaland, and that thought just popped in my mind as I'm looking at the display.

There is an open area near my house that they plan on building new homes or condos, about 1/2 mile of empty land just waiting for someone with an r/c helicopter to fly around. I stopped and asked if I could watch, and the guy said sure. This reminded me of a purchase last year...

In late October, I purchased two Picco Z (youTube) helicopters from Radio Shack. The cats loved them and too bad I didn't video them trying to swat them down. The little heli's where tiny and the charges didn't last long but they were fun to mess around with. They are meant for indoor flight but I took them outside and the wind shot one into the neighbors yard, and if it didn't then the infrared failed. But what can you expect from $40, huh? After the novelty wore off, back to the store they went.

Well, back to the "real" helicopter. This thing was about big and looked like one of those executive helicopters. The guy asked me if I had any experience with them and I told him about the littlePiccos. He laughed and said he had three of them for his kids. He flew it around and did some cool tricks with it and then later asked if I wanted to get it off the ground.

He gave me the control and showed me what sticks did what. I made very minute changes because I didn't want to wreck his helicopter. I got it off the ground about 5 feet flew it forward and did small circles and even got it to hover in one spot! OK, no crashes here ya go, thanks! I know how expensive they are so I let him take the control while it was in the air.

I noticed that in the back of his pickup, there was a WWII plane model. He stated that he uses the water park parking lot as the runway. Maybe I'll run into him again when he flies the plane. So, that was my interesting event for the day...

For anyone one of you that are into digital SLR photography this camera should make you drool uncontrollably. Have you seen it (flash)? Better yet, have you heard (youTube) it? And here's a salesperson overview (youTube). dpreview.com will probably have a full review soon so hold tight.

Features that stand out:

10 fps

50-6400 ISO

Live view

Bigger Zoomable Display 3"

Sensor Dust Deletion

Wireless File Transmitter $1,000 yikes!

Of course there are tons of other features (new AF, Battery Status, Custom Functions, etc...) that are cool and you can read about them but the aforementioned ones are the features that caught my eye. Yes, it's expensive. Yes, I'm gonna "rent" one. I've selected an area nearby that will be perfect for my Sheridan or slingshot, steel bearings, and some bottles. Now, all I have to do is press the wireless shutter release and I'm bound to get something.

Several days ago, I noticed bird crap by my front door. The weird thing is that it wasn't near the overhang but in a corner. Yesterday, I saw the culprit just standing in the corner. It was a pigeon. I tried to scare him away, and he walked away instead of jetting out! He went all the way across the street, probably waiting 'till I was out of sight so that he could return.

After I got back from my feeble attempt at a run today, he added to the pile o' crap. What's up with that? I looked around and saw him hiding under the car. Wish I had an interpreter to let me know what was wrong and how long he plans on staying.

It was freezing and on top of that the wind was blowing hard. The girls were huddled around the portable gas heater, and my daughter was inside her bat bag! It was pretty funny seeing the adults with their hoodies on and even I was cold.

We trailed the whole game practically, 3-0. Heather didn't make it on base the first two times at bat, and time was running out. We finally got close with the score 3-2, and being the home team we had three outs to get AT LEAST one run to tie the game. Hmmm, five minutes left. I think the other coach is going to walk everyone and then have the score revert back if we score anything.

With the 6-7-8-9 batters up, we got two runners on and one out. The ninth batter popped up and that made two outs. I remember a cheer the girls used to do: "Big Bad Heather, rip it up the middle!" Just do that! Again, 1-1 count and she gets a juicy pitch just where she wants it and it's a deep fly ball to center. 2 RBI Single to win the game! :) So, instead of a tie. They win 4-3.

This time the blue let us finish the game as home team because all that happened in five or so minutes :)

I got an early phone call this morning but it was downstairs, but I knew what it was about :) If I hustled down to answer it, I wouldn't make it anyway.

Had lunch with a friend today, but I'll remember "F and Third." Say that several times and see if you get funny looks.

One of the highlights (at least for me) at volleyball practice is that Coach Christy, Ramon, and I played against the girls. We played three games to 25 rally scoring. It was fun. I chuckled when Heather and the other girls ducked for cover when we went to spike the ball. I wasn't on planning on decapitating anyone, merely placing the ball where they weren't.

After practice, the "old" players were all sweating, and my kiddo says to me, "eww daddy, you're all sweaty." LOL. I love you, too! :)

The tournament was held at the San Diego City College Gym and there was no parking. I had to park way in the boonies!

Six games where going on simultaneously with five in one gym and one in the little practice room. I saw our team on the court and went to the second floor to shoot down onto the court. I didn't like that field of view so I went right next to the court by the pole and score keeper.

There was less than normal light for a gym and I had to pump up the ISO to 1000. Even then the light was bad. I should have packed the 50mm (yes, I'm feet away and it was enough) - Ugh.

The girls got smoked the first match losing two straight games (they play best 2 of 3). After the match, our team had to call the lines and do the score for the next teams that were playing.

Finally, time to play again, they beat a team named "Fruity Loops!" They wore "wife beater" shirts with the flavor written on the back of the t-shirt. Our team "Otay," pronounced - "OH TIE" beat them two games. The last match, the girls struggled a little but won the two straight games to get the first tournament jitters out of the way.

After playing "dear abby" (not my label) this morning for two friends this morning, I realized that I was starving and went to Wings and Things with a friend, and added some jalapeno poppers :~)

We were talking about all the options for mp3 players and decided to head over to the Apple Store and check them all out. I ask the guy what the "rental fee," I mean return policy is and he states nothing on certain products. So, I re-phrase my question, "What is the re-stocking fee on things people really want?" More like it, huh? He says, "10% and 14 day time limit."

I still want to get the silver iPod Nano with the Nike sport kit, but have questions HOW (gps? stride length? count? etc...) it works; nothing is on the box. So, not this second.

At the bookstore my friend asks, "How many Mega Pickles is your camera?" I couldn't let that slip get by with out some serious harassment! LOL. Can you picture a giant pickle coming out of a camera? Speaking of cameras; the 30D gets here Friday maybe, it seems as though they were out of stock but didn't reveal that little tidbit.

It wasn't long before I had an unexplained craving for some form of sweets and saw the little oreo cookie thinga-mah-jigger at Starbucks. Then I did it, I ordered a Venti (I thought it was 20 ounces) Mocha, carmel frap with chocolate and oreo treat cookie. Thanks, I enjoyed it but it seems there must be some kind of special way of consuming this, because I kept getting teased. Note to self: read Starbucks etiquette book. We departed and I head over to Heather's late game.

Heather is lead-off batter and took a 1-1 count and crushed a home run to center field. She was hauling booty around the bases and the third base coach gave the sign to slow down you can cruise to home :) Her next at bat she hit a 2 RBI single, and final at bat got thrown out at 1st. End result 7-1. This is the FIRST time that I have seen an umpire let the game finish even after the 1:40 drop dead time. He let the home team finish their at-bat, or the score would have been 7-0. No biggie just an observation especially since this was a very late game.

It took a message from a 23 year old to remind me of something. She is having problems with her boyfriend and I mentioned that it's easier for some to like you if you're perfect...its the bf/gf that still wants to be with you after they know all your imperfections. That's when you know there's more to it.

I picked up the phone to call her and my phone rings. She beat me to the call. I told her that if she was getting advice from me that she would also hear if I felt she was wrong, too. She laughed and said, 'That's why I messaged you!'

After an hour, she felt better and she wanted to go out for lunch. I declined and told her to go tell her man that she loved him and thank him for loving her. But I'm taking a rain check for that Zorba's offer, though!

The current situation with Iran "holding" the 15 British soldiers brings to light to some degree - Territorial Disputes. One claiming they were in their territory, the other claiming otherwise.

Iraq and Iran have had this dispute for centuries. I think they even started a war over it. But this time, another country is involved and things are more tricky. Now, Iran will have sanctions imposed for their nuclear ambitions (their money now has an atom emblem) and what is to happen to the British soldiers?

Normally, a country to show it's sovereignty and machismo, would display, then later release these guys shortly after. But who knows, will this be the spark that starts another conflict?

I wasn't very motivated on my route today, so about three and half miles in, I just started walking. Got my phone and called a friend to see if there were any plans for the evening. Got invited to join some friends to dinner and then the movie up in the Mission Valley area.

After finishing my little trek and shower, I head up there back in my old stomping grounds. Somehow, I managed to beat them there. We got our tickets had a nice little dinner (yes, I did get my banana split!), and went to the movies. When we got into the theater, there was only one person. We came up with the idea of sitting on each side of him, but we didn't. We would have probably gotten a strange look or even worse.

My daugther's game was scheduled to another time and field because field #1, was flooded due to of all things, a pipe leak under the field. So, I don't have to be at the game until 7:00pm. Wanna go take some photos?

I was down at the Barnes & Noble/Apple Store today down in Otay Ranch. A sudden Thunderstorm hit San Diego and I took cover in the Apple Store after the games were cancelled at the fields.

With a my earbuds in tow, I tried out all the iPod stuff. I originally wanted to purchase the Zen Vision because it has a FM radio built in, but I saw the iPod add-on for that feature ($49). The salesperson walked towards me and saw that I was wearing my running clothes (in the rain, yup)

He showed me the Nike + iPod Sport Kit and showed me a little sample that his friend had put together. Cool, but this requires the iPod Nano since it's flashed based instead of HD based like the bigger iPods. More choices huh?

So, now I'm up to the Black iPod 80GB with the FM tuner (for the gym), plus the iPod Nano Sport Kit (running). I don't have to get the Nike shoes since I have a little pouch thing to put on my shoe already for the little receiver.

I just got back from our board meeting and dinner. The highlight of the two hour meeting was the "piloting" of allowing three teams in the 12U (12 & under age group) division IF there is enough talent trying out.

It just seems we just finished a National Title (12U division) ending season and now we're talking about the 2007 All-Star season which is only a little over one month away. We finally officially decided to name our teams Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Other leagues already do this but we just called our teams All-Stars, or Tournament team. This lead to some confusion and we ended up having to say All-Stars=A/Gold, and Tournament=B/Silver.

We have, if not the largest league, one of the largest in the nation. So, we do have enough to field a third team; the only thing I'm worried about is that the Bronze team may not be as strong and both players/coaches and parents will feel discouraged.

Also, if there enough talented players in the 8U, and 14U divisions, then they would form a second team. Sometimes the 14U team barely has enough players to form a Gold team due to losing players to travel, or high school. We'll see. It's only a month away.

Over the last several weeks the market went down based on fear concerning the housing market specifically the sub-prime area. My "old age" investment accounts felt that and I saw my daily reports showing the value go down, down, down. Funds that I hope will be there for me and my future significant other (where are you! lol)

But, they've rebounded in the last couple of days. I'm glad I didn't panic and just held tight but thats that pretty much what we are usually told to do. Now, something else to scare the investors - oil prices. Maybe I should have shorted Motorola this morning on it's cheerful news.

You've seen those ads on websites, or heard "Congratulations, you've been selected to win a free iPod, XBox, PS3, or Wii!"

And all you have to do is complete a "few" offers (only three) and meet the conditions like apply and get approved for a credit card and spend a certain amount over the next few months. After that, you also have to subscribe and pay for in advance for a magazine subscription, and pick one other merchant's goodies and then get seven of your friends to do the same thing. If anyone of them don't, then you don't get ur free iPod ,XBox, PS3, or Wii.

They have your e-mail address (mine is EyeWantSpam@gmail.com) and all your friends addy's and nobody gets anything.

I received and unexpected item from my wishlist today - Jelly Bellys. I like the little dispenser with the little metal scoop. It seems my friend played hookie from work and invited me to lunch but I won't tell and gave it to me after we had finished our meal :)

Let's see how long they last sitting there next to my gaming computer just daring me to eat one, or two.

Oh, here's a question: Are you more inclined to give a bigger tip if the waiter writes, "Thank You," Have a nice day," or puts a smiley face on your bill?

Lately I've been on the assault team as Squad Leader. I normally defend because it's easier to do if people don't act as a team. So on assault, I take a team of five of us (out of 12) including one medic to breach the oil tunnel. I give the order to "open fire" prior to reaching the breach point and we meet heavy resistance. AK74 and RPK bullets are flying everywhere and I toss a smoke and enter the building shooting through the door. I know I hit someone because I hear him start running away screaming in some foreign language

I empty my clip and run out the door and let the next guy flash the tunnel, followed in turn by our m249 to provide suppressing fire. Our first casualty, then another team member gets hit and shouts "MEDIC!!!" Another soldier runs in and takes out two of the opfor. I see my guys start to bunch up in a choke point and yell for my team to "Spread Out!" but it's too late as a 203 takes out three of them. My wounded soldier is laying down in the tunnel to slow the blood loss and continues to yell for the medic and I turn to see where the medic is. He's running AWAY from all the shooting. He is climbing the ladder to try and take a different route and gets sniped as soon as he gets to the top.

Both of us are now trapped in the oil access tunnel. The opfor knows exactly where we are and I throw the last of the smoke to try to buy us some time. There are only two outcomes here: complete your objective or die. I broadcast "Enemy Spotted" and give the exact location of opfor to see if we can distract/hold our current position and have the other team take the main objective but I get no response. I radio for the rest of the squad to report in but our two other teams have been KIA. We manage to complete two of the three objectives and get flanked, flashed, and executed. "Your squad has been eliminated."

Each time that I talk to my daughter about computers she mentions how cool the Apple laptops are and "all the stuff" you can do on them with photos and music and things. I just grin because I'm a PC guy, and it would be funny for my kiddo carrying around a MacBook. She's almost in high school, less than two years away. So I wonder what she'll pick? I'd prefer the Dell.

My Dell laptop is 4.3 years old now and still hasn't died. It's showing signs of age though. I've had to get a new power cable (cable frayed), 1GB Ram, and 7200 RPM drive. The letters on three of my keys are completely gone 'A,' 'S,' and 'D.' The letters 'E,' 'C',' and 'N,' are going to vanish soon. The screen has a kitty scratch from when they wanted to kill a bug crawling across the screen. That's what I get for leaving my laptop on the floor, huh? The battery is kaput and lasts only minutes. It makes funky noises every now and so I wonder if it's telling me it's gonna die soon.

And of course Dell bombards me with catalogs for my business ("oh and get an EXTRA 10-15% discount") and so does Apple. So, it seems like they know that they've gotten my money before! lol

The only reason that I watched "Survivor" is because I liked the obstacle course challenges and when I was a kid a remember watching "Challenge of the network stars." Maybe it had to do with my desire to time everything, huh?

Today I discovered a show called "Ninja Warriors" on G4TV, the people that show "Extreme Eliminations." The Japanese come out with some good stuff for our consumption. And of course slo-mo action is involved for the really good parts.

The courses on "Ninja Warrior" are super tough and yes, you get to see people get mangled and hurt! I highly recommend it. It comes on at 6:30 p.m./10:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

After my run, I called my daughter up and headed out for lunch. Since she likes Chili's, there we went. She spotted a table and we were given head of the line privileges :) The pet store is next to the restaurant and we looked at some cats (one swatted at Heather) and we had that look, "no wonder you're still here, kitty." We saw some dogs and haven't decided yet on which kind yet. If I'm gonna have to clean up at some point or another for it, it better not be a gigantic sized one :)

When we got back to the house, we were looking for music to put on her MySpace. Some sources were my collection, the music search and she picked "We like the cars that go boom," by Le Tigre. She tried to add it but had that puzzled look on her face. I'm still sort of a MySpace noob, but I noticed that she wasn't logged in. I say, "Maybe you have to be logged in to add it." She tests it out with her current song selection and has that "duh" look on her face and we both laugh!

She's getting interested in learning XHTML, CSS, and other web stuff along with Photoshop. Hmmm, wonder where she's going to apply that knowledge huh? She let's me see what's on her profile so I'm not concerned plus she gets me involved with it.

The fight between the two fighters isn't until May 5th, 2007 but I have picked which fighter I want to win. The reasons follow:

This is a weird fight in that the Sr. Mayweather is Oscar's trainer. Wow. Imagine your dad training someone to help beat you.

Oscar has made it big and dictates the conditions of the fight such as: ring size, gloves, promotions, money share, weigh-in details, etc...Of course, Oscar would set the conditions that maximize his chances and offset those of his competitor. If the challenger doesn't like it, no deal. So, Floyd Mayweather really wants this fight faxing in his signed contract early.

Oscar has to win, since he says it's his farewll fight. Ten titles in six divisions, and a gold medal intact. If he loses, that would set-up another MEGA purse fight (it's about the money, Oscar wouldn't resist an eight figure purse? With all the marketing, fight III would break any tie and all previous fight earnings records.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. has five titles in four divisions. This is his big payday and he deserves it and I hope he overcomes the fight conditions and wins outright - no split decision; unanimous decision or knock-out!

Have you seen the stories on the news about all the flights being cancelled because of bad weather on the east coast? Over 1,500 flights in two days by just one carrier. Many travelers are mad. But, they got what they asked for, right? Not to have to be waiting in the airport or plane after a recent fiasco but they complained and whined anyway

The airlines acted quickly this time - "CANCELLED - GO HOME." No free tickets for you! Have you read the fine print - "We are not responsible for cancellations due to inclement weather."

So what should I do with the one-way airline ticket that I have from last August?

I got up really early for my run this morning and it was VERY foggy. I liked it since I don't have to use sunglasses or use sunscreen when I'm out. I wore a sweatshirt and used the hood, running with my hands in the pocket.

As I reached the plateau, I could hear a car slowing down near me and I glanced over and it was a black and white. They pulled up besides me and looked over for a second and I acknowledged them. I wonder what that was all about. Maybe they were after the guy that was doing donuts in the street and knocked over the tree :)

I did another run one hour before sundown so that I wouldn't have to do one tomorrow. An old couple were out doing their daily walk. As usual, they called out my name and asked if I had bettered my time. Nope, just out on a "regular" pace run.

The UPS guy dropped off the crocs that I ordered last week. I didn't even think about that when he passed me at the light.

The team had a make-up game tonight at 5:00pm. They played -"Da Bomb." I haven't heard that expression in a long time.

It seemed like all our girls hit today, and they won 8-2. Heather went 2-3 with one at bat as a lefty. More people were surprised that the snackbar was closed than anything else. No game tomorrow since it's a "bye" 5-1-2 is the record so far.

See the flowers?! And you can see the outer ones blooming as they sense the sun. Wow, I didn't expect someone from "out there" to remind me to put this up.

I turned on ABC's 20/20 and saw a segment on the U.S. Memory Championships. They described the very techniques that I used to remember things - making them unique in an outrageous way. I recall an example: The capitol of Louisiana; I remembered seeing a girl named Louisana batting some rouge. Also, an Ark sawing a little rock on a can. Dumb huh? But will you remember it now?

You can apply this technique to many things. I did it mainly because my dad didn't want to give me a ride to or from school and I had to walk. I didn't want to carry the books home so I memorized the work at school, and did the homework in class so I would have to carry as little home as possible!

I met a new friend at the gym today while waiting for my court. We talked for about ten minutes before it was my turn to play in the racquetball court and I asked her if she wanted to play. She said that she was a beginner and didn't want to waste my time, but she came in the court anyway.

After a few pointers, she was smacking the ball around. I kept hitting the ball so that she could get the hang of where she was supposed to be. Then out of the blue, she says, "I know you can hit the ball harder than that!" On the VERY NEXT serve, she goes to the wrong side...yup, right to my forehand off a ball to the back wall. I had taken a second to see what direction she was going to see what to do but as I took my eye off of her, she moved DIRECTLY in line with my shot. I hit her in the back about five centimeters down from her right shoulder blade.

She not only "warned the tribe" but started to cry. I felt soooo bad, but probably not as bad as she did. I've been hit before and I know how much it hurts. We sat down while she recovered and she asked me to lift the back of her shirt to see if it left a mark - it did, nice and red.

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." Have you heard the saying? Usually if you've heard that then you were at the receiving end of some verbal attack.

I remember when I was a kid that my dad would barrage me with names that he believed that I would be called in school, such as: Chinky, Chinaman, Rice Bowl, Jap, Beaner, etc...I didn't like but he kept re-enforcing that I better get used to it because it was going to happen all the time.

Well, it did. I was called Bruce Lee, Ancient Chinese Secret, Slant Eyes, Rice Boy, among others. I never reacted to the comments whether they hurt or not. I just wondered what was bothering them that they had to pick on me. Were they feeling powerless and they felt that by trying to hurt me they would feel better about themselves?

As an adult, I don't get the names but now it's simply, "Are you Asian?" I think that it's funny that I've been told that I look every single Asian nationality, but I'm leaning toward Chinese background.

Practice seemed a little more than just the fundamentals today. They had actual games and since I was the only parent there, I was the lucky one to operate the electronic scoreboard. It took me a second to figure it out but I got the hang of it. The girls are still learning the rotations and reading the situations; they only have one more practice to get it since the first tournament is on the 25th.

I was at Best Buy today getting a price match on my (12-1 card reader). It was a 33 percent price difference so I'm standing at the customer service counter and a big guy bolts out the front door followed by what seemed like a manager and a couple of sales reps in hot pursuit!

Everyone was looking out the doors to see what happened. I walked over to the front and could see the Best Buy crew and several Chula Vista police officers about 200 yards away, with the thief in control. They caught him. It seems the police officers just happened to be at Subway eating lunch.

After my lunch today, I received two fortune cookies instead of the usual one. The first fortune said, "You are unaware of how important you are to someone." The second one reads, "Your talents will capture you the highest status and prestige."

Today I received a text message from my daughter stating that she had gotten straight A's. I would normally call her right back and talk to her. But this time, I just txt'd her right back. I'll end up calling her, too but I bet she was surprised. :)

Every year it seems that the birds would like to join me here. They set-up several nests up high in the joints. I can hear them chirping away in the morning, that wake-up call. I left the windows open I could the birds and the little tink, tink of the blinds tapping on the frame of the window.

I think that if I extend a metal clothes hanger that it will let me put a hummingbird feeder down from the balcony in front of the family room. Maybe, I can get a photo of them feeding.

The girls played the Lady Barons tonight at 7:00pm and the time change made a little better since it wouldn't be cold for as long. Our girls took the lead midway through the game 1-0, but then we were down 3-1 LATE in the game. In the final inning, the best that they could do was to tie so that they did. 3-3 in the final inning, and the top of THEIR line-up left to bat. Since the other team was home and only 10 min left in the game, this was it. No pressure 1-2-3. Ball Game. Good Night.

Remember the doom and gloom over the Y2K bug? I do, I was even given a couple of Y2K "bugs" to put on my computer monitors and I still have them.

The news made a big deal about the time change this year since it was three weeks earlier and everything was automatically programmed to occur later and the the world would blow up and time would end. My phone, cable, computers, etc...changed time.

Microsoft pushed down updates to computers and those that didn't have an update or PC well, all they had to do was: Change the time manually!

The movie "300," made 70 million this weekend - a record for March. Do you remember when Titanic came out and it reached the 100 million? Or, when the "Terminator 2"came out in 1991 The gross is touted as a success of a movie for all time. But I think that there should be an index so that we can accurately compare movies from different eras.

Would this be difficult, I don't think so. We know how many theaters there are and each reports how much they charge for tickets. How many people saw it versus the pool of available viewers and other factors.

After all that stuff is computed just put up the index from 1-100. So, if I tell you that in 1997, "The Matrix" had an index of 92.1 and "Harry Potter" had a 94.0, wouldn't that be easier and give you a better picture?

Of all the contacts you have, how many of their phone numbers do you know by heart? An even lower number would be the addresses of these contacts. The reason I ask these is because a friend of mine wanted didn't have their cell with them and wanted to call their friend so I handed my cell over to them, and they said they didn't know the number, just the speed dial number.

A weird thing about me is that I've never used the speed dial. I just punch in the number each time.

No wonder we can't remember anything. Do we rely on technology too much?

Of those that you do know by heart, who are they? Do you know their address too?

Good Movie! I'd see it again at the theatre because it lived up to all the hype. It had good fight scenes with a little Matrix thrown in for good measure. Of course you have to have the Goliath type warrior (See Troy), weird creatures (Lord of the Rings) and all the other type. The movie reminded me a little of "Braveheart" too.

If anyone has seen "The Last Samauri," then they make mention of this battle. So, I'll have to add "300" to my wish list. :)

Oh and what movie does a character say something to the effect, "It's a good day to die!"

I just confirmed the plans and we both picked the same movie - 300. I've been waiting since I saw the preview months ago. "So we shall fight in the shade, huh?" I love those types of movies where they have a bazillion warriors, romans, spartans, etc...and they battle it out.

Yesterday, when I was out and about, I overheard some people say that they saw it and I asked if it was good. Thumbs up from all four.

Synergy lost today 0-5. Lots of errors, so we dropped from 1st place to 3rd and we play the 1st place team on Monday night. Heather got on base and stole her way to third but we had too many LOBs again. (4-1-1)

I took some photos of her game and then Heather and I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up a couple of books for her (non-computer). I thought it was interesting how we sat down together in the middle of the isle and looked at photoshop, flickr, and other geeky books together. I'm going to pass on some beginner books on website stuff and see how she takes to it. She showed some interest and I'm betting that's it mostly MySpace and her layouts thats piquing the sudden interest - lol.

Heather's Spanish is improving so I can bounce stuff off her and push her past the basics; it will come in handy later on.

Later, we shared a quick bite to eat at Arby's and took it back to the fields to shoot a 4:00 p.m. game. Left early so I could drop her off at a friends.

Washed/Vac'd my car. Have lots on the plate for tomorrow :=) Oh, I cashed in my lotto ticket -$10. I bought my carne asada chips and took 'em home!

Am I the only person that has deleted someone from their friend list by accidentally clicking on delete when you are reading a bulletin? It's just too easy to do.

Too bad you can't group friends based on who they are. I know you have the top 4, 8, etc...but I mean something like: Family, Real Life Friends, Gaming Friends, Work, Bands, Other, etc...

Another feature is the ability to mark which friends can be seen. Some are shy and don't want everyone to know they're on MySpace - They just want to read your blogs, or bulletins.

Since some people post a boatload of bulletins a day, the bulletin window would show "Goober (12)" and then you can click to see what 12 they did. That way, I can see everyone elses at a glance without their bulletins hogging the entire space allotted.

The prices around here are going up nice and steadily. We are told it's because it's the scheduled repair/maintenance time, and that the law of supply and demand is playing out.

I don't believe it! Have you seen any signs that say, "Sorry! No gas." That means there IS gas. Are they going to run out? NOPE. Do the oil companies know when they will get more supply, or are they worried about running out?

In a entry on 3/3/07 I wrote about decisions. Sometimes it seems like what I talk about (topic wise) comes about shortly afterwards and I only had to wait for five days.

Maybe I knew what was going to happen and I was merely foreshadowing and I shouldn't gotten myself into this situation? I forgot to put in another "sometimes" in there. Sometimes a decision shouldn't be made at that MOMENT. But can we say, "I don't know how to answer that right now, can I think about it a little more?"

I don't think anyone wants to be compelled to make a decision and that's where pride comes in. After you've made the decision can you say, "damn, maybe that wasn't the 'right' decision." and do something about it or do you just get a drink to wash down the bitter pill?

Tacit decisions also come into play. It may not be that we are agreeing with that decision, just allowing it to be made by another.

"We know not what the future holds," applies directly here. This morning I wouldn't have guessed that this scenario would have played out today, or if it did, the way it did.

One of my credit cards allows me to redeem accumulated dollars for merchandise at selected stores. I figured that I could use the gift certificates there even if not all at once. So, the options are to use $20 credit to get $30 giftcard, or use $40 credit to get $50. Quick - which would you get?

As I approached the fields, the manager from the other team said, "take it easy on us tonight." I answered that the girls were the key. Again, they started off slow. Nothing until later in the game. The last girl on our line-up got on base. Heather batting lefty hits it to 3rd and the defense tries to throw out the lead runner but misses and the center fielder chases the ball. So Heather ends up catching up to the lead runner at the plate and they both scored. What a way to get a homer, huh? The girls ended up winning 4-1. Heather went 2 for 3 with an RBI.

The other team threw a mini birthday party with some pizza, cake and drinks for one of the players. The birthday girl saw me an brought over a couple of slices of pizza. Her team emptied or so it seemed, a can of shaving cream all over her.

On my "time waster," America's Army Game. We have some server rules that you have to abide by in order to play there. We try to keep it a fun place for 24 people to have fun killing each other.

One of the rules is: "No Foul or Disrespecting Language." So, what does the new person to the server do? He types "PH%^K U." We warn him and he does something similar and he gets kicked(5 min. timeout). He didn't type the actual word or phrase but everyone knows what it is. He comes back on the server and then "WTF." We kick him again but he manages a "GDMF" as his parting last word.

So, if people find a particular word offense, for example the 'C', 'N' or 'F' words. Didn't you say them and get the meaning? Is it different just because you used a single letter. Or is just the negative way in which they are used that is upsetting?

When you play racquetball you can and will get hurt if you play long enough. You can get hit with the ball, racquet, run into the wall, others, etc. I was the lucky one to get hit with the edge of the racquet. It hit me right at the edge of the patella and soft area.

That area was already partially numb from a baseball injury when I was a kid. The racquet left a nice one inch gash. Of course, this is why I don't like playing doubles, and someone asks, "Dude sorry. Are you ok?" Then the blood starts and doesn't want to stop. I put pressure on it and hoped it didn't need stiches.

I cleaned up the mess and sat on the bench outside the court. Then I get the 'nemesis' get there and call me a wuss for not playing a match with him. Sorry, you'll have to wait a couple of days to beat me.

How many of you tip the convenience store clerk, or StarBucks person? Will we soon see a tip jar at the hostess station for seating us? Or how about the secretary's desk for making copies, or answering the phone. Don't forget to tip the gas station guy for turning on the pump.

Oh, and how much of the money you see in the tip jar is "seed" money? Just something that just popped in my mind...

My daughter asked if I knew how to do MySpace layouts and I said that I didn't but I could easily figure it.

Well, it seems that MySpace filters out a bunch of stuff, ids and javascript and well a lot of stuff. But learned a lot about it after I dissected the entire structure. I created images and zapped the text by shifting it off the screen instead of making it tiny, or blending the text color to match the background image color.

It's the first day so give me a few and I'll share what I learn if you drop me a line. It's simple but interesting at the same time.

Last week, when I was at my daughter's volleyball practice (Community Center), I saw a big sign that said, "Cooking Classes starting March 5th." Cool, I can take the cooking classes while Heather is practicing. The classes are one hour long and I made a mental note to be there.

I brought Heather a sandwich before practice and warmed up a little with her, and then waited for the cooking class to start just 50 feet away in the next room. I look at my watch and go into the room and nobody is there. I see two ladies nearby and ask a question while pointing at the big sign. "Anyone know about the class?" They nod that they don't know and wander off.

I wonder what happened because I was really looking forward to them. I guess next time, I'll just bring my laptop again.

The jackpot for the MEGA Millions is estimated at 340 Million USD on March 6th. If not the biggest, one of the biggest jackpots ever. Let's look a little closer at this...

Pick five numbers from 1 to 56. Then pick one number from 1 to 46 called the MEGA number. If you get all five correct plus the MEGA, you will win the 340 Million. Your odds are ONLY 175,711,536 to 1.

But here's where my wheels start turning. Rounding off, IF you had 176 Million and you played EVERY number possible you would be guaranteed to win double your money. But wait, that's if nobody else won and you were the sole winner.

Big chance. You're hoping that only one other person will win. Would you be comfortable with a 1 in 4 chance? I mean would you bet 44 Million to win 340 Million?

The rules state that only the largest prize wins on your sheet wins. OK, buy single tickets. Then, for every 46 (mega number is a winner) you get back $1.00 and so forth for each winning number that you select. I think it's $2 for 1 number, $10 for 2 numbers, $50 for 3, etc...so you WILL have many winning tickets PLUS the jackpot.

Only problem is ... where can you print out 176 million tickets? Can you imagine someone walking into a 7-11 and saying "I want to play the entire number range for the MEGA Lottery." Uh. How long would that take, how many rolls of paper, can you use your debit card?. I already know what 500 sheets of paper looks like. How about 176 million little sheets? AND THEN, knowing that you won...FINDING the winning ticket!!!

Can anyone out there let me know where the error in my logic of reducing the odds are? I wonder if someone has played in this fashion before, even pooling their money. To have such a problem, huh? Oh, I bought my one ticket already. :)

The majority of my income when I was a kid was from collecting bottles, so you can probably guess that things that I wanted took a little bit longer to acquire. I didn't limit myself to the refund type of bottles but also the ones that I would use to shoot with my Crossman 760 (it shot pellets, BB's or tiny darts), or my wristrocket wannabe slingshot (the 'real' wristrocket cost double).

I remember a group of my friends with similar hardware bombarding a house that had a sign that said "Stay Out!!!" all over it. We aimed for the windows with the slingshot barrage, and used the rifles for stuff like lights and such. In what I would say was two minutes, all the windows were shattered.

A man with a bat starts running towards us. What the heck?!? Someone was still living there either illegally or not but no time to figure that out. We ran like crazy, and my cousin just dropped "his" slingshot and bailed. The man chased us in his car but we doubled back and hid for hours until it got dark. I went back to get my slingshot and we decided on breaking bottles for a while.

I have a dumb grin on my face at the moment. When I woke up this morning I could barely remember the dream that I just interrupted. I hopped back in bed and tried to resume that dream but it morphed into something else.

In the dream I was a doctor, something that I wanted to be when I was six through through age thirteen. The reason I wanted to be a doctor was because when I was six I most recall my mom being sick. I lived with all adults at the time and I asked what kind of doctor helps women? They gave me an adult answer, "Obstetrician or a Gynecologist." Hmmm. OK that's what I want to be when I grow up!

Well, if I had asked the right questions - Why is she sick? or what's bothering her then I wouldn't of known but the adult would have known the correct answer was Cardiologist.

That's the reason for the grin. I was trying to help but wouldn't have been able to. The mind of a six year old, huh? lol.

It seems everytime I see Mark Ruffalo it seems like he is typecast in these romantic comedies. Last time I saw him was "3o going on 13" or is that vice-versa? Anyway, I liked it and movies like these that some may think as cheesy.

It was an awesome day today. I got invited to lunch and as I was heading out, and my car was in the driveway, the garage door just stopped. The neighbor looked at me and then at the door. I pressed the button and it didn't do anything. I get out and check the door hoping it wasn't busted. Nope, just some spider that was blocking the beam. The neighbor was relieved that I didn't squash it.

As I turned towards my car I noticed that the grass was greener, the leaves on the trees were returning and the flowers were in full bloom soaking up the sun. I went back into the house and took some photos of the orange ones. I'll post some later.

So...if someone offers to buy you lunch, do you subconsciously order more than you would get had you paid yourself? I didn't btw, but I thought about it. I ended up trying something new and felt satiated and was glad that I didn't order anything extra.

Hey the HEROES oriental guy (What's his name?) is on late night and I should zonk since I have a long day tomorrow, uh...today.

It's an ugly title. But, how many of us have made it clear to our loved ones what we want to happen in our eventual passing? I know I haven't. I should, and pay for it now so that I don't have to burden anyone with the already emotional stress that will occur.

Could anyone have imagined that Anna Nicole Smith would be going through all of this in her death?

I was babbling about this a couple of weeks ago and am finally putting my fingers to work on it. Maybe rambling at 12:30am isn't the right time to make sense but at least I know one of my readers always sends me a note.

I believe that decisions shouldn't be made under any type of duress. Wow, amazing insight isn't it? Have you ever made a decision because you were angry, depressed, upset, or just not feeling right?

Some decisions are right for now, but not for the long run. Some decisions that appear wrong are right, in the long run. Sometimes no matter what decision you make - it's the wrong one.

So what do we have influencing us while we TRY to make these decisions? My friend looks at me funny when I say that we may think we can totally control our actions but our body spews out "bio-chemical intoxicants" (endorphins, norepinephrine, epinephrine, blah, blah) that wreck havoc just to make life difficult on us.

It's for this particular reason that I always try to resist the ever common "What were they thinking when they did that stupid thing, I'd NEVER do that." It happens all to often.

Then to top that off there are other variables influencing such as: pride, what we've previously said about the situation to friends, friends views, family views, trying to please everyone, religion, etc...

I try to focus on making decisions that are geared towards the long run or big picture. How 'bout you?

This has been a draft now for two months and since I'm going through all of them I decided to "un-draft" this post.

We all know what it means, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and just say that it's neither. It depends on your position and frame of mind. Don't think it's a cop-out. Really, if you're drinking, and there is no one to fill it - it's half empty (positive or negative attitude matters not) . If you're the waiter, then it's? as you approach it's half empty, but prior to beginning to fill it it's now a new role and it's now half full and you only need to FILL it another half. If you're driving and it's at the mid point, what is it? It's half-empty...Now, if you stop at a gas station, then it's half full.

Being positive about the half tank full won't get you any more m.p.g. Addressing the fact that it's half empty would be more realistic and determine how diligent you need to be in finding a gas station.

Does this apply when dealing with life's issues? I believe it does. Viewing something as positive when it needs to be viewed in a negative manner CAN dilute the urgency to act. But then again, a quote from "Braveheart" - 'It matters not!' How you choose to handle the situation is more important.

Today was a make-up game of the make-up game from last Friday, which happened to be a make-up of the prior Monday's game. Got it? Good!

The girls were flat, we were down 2-0 till late in the game (5th?) and then poof! recreation ball at its finest - three runs come in with the help of a few throwing errors by the other team. My kiddo went 0-3, but ended up making two difficult catches, one of those she dove for. She says that it hurt even with all the gear on. We're now 2-0-1, and in second place.

I ate at the local Chinese restaurant today for lunch and ran into someone I knew. It happens quite frequently but I still get surprised when it happens. The lady at the Chinese place was teasing me because I wanted to make sure that I got my "crispy noodles." I described them but didn't know what they were called. I know now.

Also, its been one year since I made an investment to the day and I'm excited about my "note" maturing. I have to drive my butt over there to get the fruits of my labor but I'll be in the area to sign some other papers at the bank. I keep getting the reminder e-mails so I should get my booty in there.

DVRs are great, but each time I see the little red light turn on I know I'm missing something and know I have stuff that hasn't been watched. "Down arrow, delete, confirm..." OK, now it has some room for more stuff I won't watch :) Hmmm, I wonder if I take the box in, and ask for a different one, if it will have a larger HD?

I called cox tech support (good morning) and had them enable the usb port so I'm gonna see if I can grab some of that content off the HD. If it works then I can watch the show on the laptop when I go to practice, or as is the case now, not watch most of them.

Every year I get billed about $75, which is a rental fee. There is a form included with the invoice to get an exemption for say...actually living in the house! But that's not really why this is going up here, it's because they require proof you live in the house. How do you prove you live in a house, well they want a copy of your cable, electric bill, or water/sewage bill.

So, what happens if everything is on-line? Do a screen print, and send it in? "We need an original" says the lady on the phone. Update the SOPs for the times people. It's the same thing when you're asked for a home phone number. Many people now just have a cell number but you get the, "I'm sorry we need a home (landline) number, if you give them your cell." If you buy something on-line, using the cell number it raises some flags but only the high risk services will call you.

What policy have you seen lately that needs to be updated for the times? BTW, I ended up using a UPS label from one of boxes I have.